With 9/11 more distant, alertness wavers

Such alertness may be especially important in light of the most recent hijacking warnings. In an urgent memo sent to airlines and airport security personnel last week, the Department of Homeland Security warned that hijackers may try to commandeer planes using "common items carried by travelers, such as cameras, modified as weapons." Intelligence sources said they'd also try to convince passengers that they were orchestrating a simple hijacking, instead of trying to turn the plane itself into a weapon as they did on Sept. 11.

"The complacency that's set in compromises aviation security because we've become more reactive, rather than what's required," says Andrew Thomas, an aviation security analyst in Cleveland.

In his new book "Aviation Insecurity," Mr. Thomas faults the Transportation Security Administration for taking a defensive, law-enforcement approach to security - in effect closing the loopholes that had already been exploited - instead of taking a more proactive, deterrent approach. "Deterrence says, don't even try to come here because your likelihood of success is very low. Law enforcement says, try it and then we'll catch you," he says. "So the current aviation system is less secure than it could be."

Still, the presence of screeners in their white shirts with TSA patches on their shoulders, the baggage-screening machines that now sit next to some airline counters, and other security improvements have made many travelers feel more secure. "Obviously, they're doing something about it, and that makes me feel better," says Lily Levine, a teenager from Lebanon, Conn., who was flying to visit her grandmother in Virginia.

Pollsters are split on whether Sept. 11 was a watershed moment for the country, such as Vietnam and Watergate, which permanently shifted the country's perceptions of itself and government. Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, believes that the terrorist attack and the threat of more has indeed caused a fundamental change in Americans.

"We know now that we are vulnerable to attacks and that we have foreign enemies," he says. "That has changed our priorities - for instance, increasing support for defense spending."

Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup poll, has registered that change as well. But he hasn't found many other indications that Sept. 11 was a watershed event. "Right afterward, people talked a lot about religion and going to church, but that was a blip," he says. "We did see trust in government go up, but that is going down again."

Polls have shown that people who were directly affected by the attacks, lost family members, live in the Washington or New York areas, or were stranded for long periods of time are much more likely to have changed. Like Jim Stockhausen. He's transferring from St. Louis to the Springfield, Mass., area, which is right near Bradley International.

"I'd much rather fly out of Bradley rather than Boston or New York," he says. "It all still seems very, very real to me."

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